


Pictures

by staaticstars



Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Study, One-Shot, jesse is a good boy who's just confused and misses home, you can interpret Jesse and Lake however you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23615623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staaticstars/pseuds/staaticstars
Summary: It’s just easier to scroll through his phone and look at his photos than to think about the weird glowing green number on his hand, or the fact that he’s on some sort of crazy universe-bending train, or the scary metal girl he just met sitting next to him.
Relationships: Jesse/Lake
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	Pictures

In the week he’s been on the train, Jesse’s gone through his entire photo album four times.

Twice top-to-bottom, twice bottom-to-top. Sometimes he flicks to the middle and just goes from there, or gets halfway through a round before he’s interrupted by something more deserving of his attention (usually running away and staying alive, but sometimes a cool animal or weird awesome magic train thing that he wants to check out). It might seem a little boring and anti-climactic, but he figured out by his second day that looking through his pictures is the only purpose his phone really has on the train. There’s no internet or cell reception, and most of the apps he has are either Wi-Fi-dependent or drain his battery life absurdly fast. 

So, pictures are all he’s got. He’s deleted pretty much all of his other apps and has Low Power Mode enabled, so that his phone doesn’t run out of juice too quick. There, um, probably aren’t any readily-available phone chargers on the train, so he’s gotta make the most of what power he does have. He thinks he’s doing pretty good so far – 62 percent. He doesn’t remember what he had when first got on.

He doesn’t take as many pictures as he maybe should be of all the crazy stuff he’s been seeing on the train, mostly because he’d end up with, like, 50,000 gazillion pictures per car, and also because the chances of this being some sort of insane, really vivid dream are still pretty overwhelming. But he looks through his albums for what feels like constantly, remembering his home, his parents, his childhood, Nate…

(…Nate…)

It’s just easier to look at his photos than to think about the weird glowing green number on his hand, or the fact that he’s on some sort of crazy universe-bending train, or the scary metal girl he just met sitting next to him.

Pictures of his 5th grade science fair just make so much more sense than anything going on around him right now.

* * *

He’s not really sure why, but either he’s finally gone crazy (if he hasn’t already), or M.T. keeps jumping every time he pulls out his phone.

Not jumping in a big super-obvious way, just…flinching. Arms stiffening. Eyes widening and eyebrows furrowing and shifting a half-inch away from it. Subtle moments of vaguely stifled panic.

It’s weird, and he can’t quite put his finger on why she’d react that way. Maybe it’s just a metal person thing? Will she magnetize to his phone or something?

He takes a quick selfie with Alan Dracula and puts it away. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t want to make her nervous. Besides, he needs to conserve as much battery as possible. He’s already at 47 percent.

* * *

Jesse misses his phone.

He keeps putting his hand into his pocket to check on it or pull it out, only to remember that it’s been crushed and spray-painted black and crushed again.

He’s not… _mad_ at M.T., not really, especially now that he knows why she did it and why she got so jumpy around it, but he’s not happy about it. He’d been on his 9th round when she’d broken it, and at 39 percent – he could’ve had another entire almost-half of battery life to look through his pictures a few more times.

Though he does feel less lonely, now that he and M.T. spend the day goofing around and running through cars and being awesome travel buds together. There’s less of a reason to stare at his phone when he’s talking and laughing while resting for the night instead of huddled into a corner by himself. He reaches for his phone less and less, though that might just be because he’s getting used to not having it.

He feels worse about Nate than ever, and more confused about everything back in Arizona than ever, but he’s not sure if that’s because of losing his phone or the green number on his hand going down or realizing that maybe he should go about life a little differently than he currently does. They might all be connected – he knows the number-going-down thing is good, though, according to M.T.

But the sky in this particular car is bright and beautiful, and M.T. is laughing at something stupid he probably just said, and for once in a long time he feels like he really knows what he should and shouldn’t have done, instead of just a fuzzy nagging feeling at the back of his head. He doesn’t have his phone or his pictures and that’s okay, because now he has a real, amazing friend and he’s making his way towards home, however slowly that may be, and everything feels like it’s on the horizon line of being alright.

* * *

There’s a brief moment when he gets off the train – back in Arizona, back with Nate, back in front of his house and his porch and his _parents he hasn’t even seen his parents yet_ – when he thinks, fleetingly, about his phone.

He wouldn’t call it thinking, even. A _thought_ , maybe. A single millisecond where it vaguely crossed his mind. But it still happened, and he still feels bad about it.

Everything off the train (his first time) is a blur of panic and mess and movement and Nate in front of his eyes and talking to him, _talking to him,_ after weeks of regret and guilt tearing at his chest. And it feels better, for a tiny millisecond, talking to Nate at long last. He hurt him and he’s sorry, and he’s _telling him,_ and for a moment he can’t feel anything but _relief,_ finally, ebbing slowly over the guilt.

And then his mind crashes with thoughts of _M.T. I HAVE TO GET BACK TO HER I HAVE TO GO HELP HER GET_ BACK ON THE TRAIN and the halfway-good feeling shatters in his palms, replaced with explosions of panic and adrenaline slamming into his chest like a mountain.

It’s when Nate runs inside that it happens. He looks at the house and he’s hit with a wave, an ache to run inside and hug his parents and tell them that he’s alive and he’s okay – and he remembers that at some point he’ll have to tell them that he broke his phone.

It’s so ridiculous, and he hates himself for the thought even crossing his mind, at a time like this. But he doesn’t even process it, barely notices it as it gets swept away in a sea of _THE TRAIN I HAVE TO GO I HAVE TO FIND M.T._ and his feet carry him whoever knows where.

And then, somehow, he gets back on the train, and darkness rushes up his head and he can’t think anything at all.

* * *

It’s two weeks after his second time off the train (and the last, hopefully) when Lake hands him a small rectangular box, crudely wrapped with very crumpled-looking wrapping paper and an overabundant amount of tape.

“What’s this?” he asks, lifting it up in surprise. It’s completely out of the blue and he’s not sure what to expect – he mentally checks how close his birthday is, then wonders if Lake actually knows his birthday. “What’s the occasion?”

“It’s, uh…” Lake scowls and rubs the back of her head. “Just open it.”

So he does, gingerly at first, but there’s so much tape and so much wrapping paper that eventually he just gives up and tears through. It’s a white box, _a smartphone box_ , he realizes, his heart sinking with shock. He opens it quickly and there it is, shiny and gleaming right in front of his eyes.

“It’s, um…because I broke yours on the train and then spray-painted all over it, remember?” Lake says, wincing a little. “I felt really bad, so I talked to your parents and helped pay for this new one. It’s apparently some nice new model, and it has all the cloud data from your old one.”

Something warm and heavy bubbles up in him, and he turns to Lake, eyes wide. “I…” The words catch in his throat for a moment and he’s not sure why, just waits for it to pass. “Wow. This is amazing!”

He pulls the smartphone out of the box and taps the home button, and watches it turn on with a crazy swoopy feeling in his gut, and then he goes straight to the photo album and his pictures are all there and his heart _explodes_. “Oh my gosh, Lake! Look! Thank you so much!”

Lake relaxes and smiles, looking overjoyed to see that he’s happy with the gift. “It was mostly your parents – I’m just chipping in a little.”

He narrows his eyes sideways at her. “How are you getting money to pay for this, anyways?”

“Not important.”

He shrugs, thumbing through the photos. He’ll find out later, and right now he’s too happy to care. “Oh my god…I thought, I dunno, I guess I haven’t really thought about my phone for a while, like since the train. Wow.” He scrolls up and down the camera roll, ridiculously happy and relieved. Huh…the pictures stop once he got on the train…nothing of Alan Dracula…

Lake leans over his shoulder, looking at his screen. “Are these all your pictures?”

“Yeah.” He starts at the bottom and swipes slowly through, showing her some of his favorites and casually deleting videos of his “friends” with a grimace. “Before you, er, broke the other one, I was looking at them all the time on the train. They reminded me of home, and they were kind of the only things that made any sense.”

He thumbs through the photos for a few more seconds before an idea strikes him, and he stands up quickly, fiddling with the new phone to get to its camera. “Hang on! Get up – we gotta do something real quick!”

Lake stands up, looking alarmed. “What happened?”

Jesse slings and arm around Lake’s shoulder and holds the phone out, selfie-style. Lake flinches at herself in the camera, but looks more confused than anything as Jesse angles the smartphone. “What are you doing?”

“We don’t have a picture of us together!” Jesse says excitedly. “Smile!” Lake smiles awkwardly, still looking confused, as he snaps the photo and pulls away from her.

“Wow, look at that,” he says, showing her the picture. “First picture on my new phone! That’s perfect!” He looks back at the photo and beams.

Lake blinks at it, her eyes wide, and smiles slowly. “Wow,” she agrees, quietly, and sounds so awestruck and surprised and happy that Jesse just beams even harder.

He favorites the picture right away – and decides he’s never going to delete it ever, no matter how pressed for storage he might be in the future.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first thing I've fully written in over 2 years....bro...I'm sorry if this is a little weird/off/confusing to read I'm still pretty rusty 
> 
> this was more of a concept than anything but I hope it came out okay/you enjoyed it! it felt good to write again and i love book 2 sososososososososo much oh my god its, so good


End file.
